Def: Nutrition

Nutrition: [noo-trish-uhn] noun:

1. The act or process of nourishing or of being nourished.
2. The process by which organisms take in and utilize food material.

September 21st

Breakfast: 16 oz coffee
Lunch: Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich
Dinner: Fruit bar; Cream of potato soup

September 22nd

Breakfast: Cheerios
Lunch: Sushi
Dinner: Turkey Wrap, Mac & Cheese

Nutrition = Fail.

*Sigh*

I am determined to fix this. But how? At this point, it's honestly tough to remember to eat at regular intervals. Let alone plan my meals out! I'd rather get my 8 hours of sleep than spend 1-2 hours planning out my week. Plus, then I don't really feel satisfied anyway.

I know Jillian says that eating is all about calories in, calories out. But I seriously think that is so oversimplified. You need to eat the right foods. You can enjoy eating. And from one foodie (me) to one trainer (Jill) - I can't just give up the mac and cheese. It doesn't work that way.

I can see this conversation happening:

Jill (J) - "If you can't ditch the (mac & cheese, chocolate, cookies, insert other unhealthy food here), maybe you don't want it enough."

Me - "Oh Jillian, but I do! I want it so badly getting fit is all I think about! Well, that and the (mac & cheese, chocolate, cookies, insert other unhealthy food here)."

J - "Amanda, you need to choose your battles. The mac & cheese has no power, but your body will function without your consent."

Me - *sigh* "Okay, Jillian."

Just another day in ignorant indulgence.

Counting calories made me realize how lazy I can be. I just don't want to do it! I walked a lot yesterday, and have been fighting with floods, allergies, and homework all week so fitness was put on the back burner... again. But I had a wellness class yesterday morning (lack of sleep... is it only Thursday?) that explained how obesity and being inactive can lead to colon and rectal cancer. Yikes!!! That sure put me in perspective! I went to lunch after, and exhausted as I was, those cheese fries looked amazing. And then "cancer" popped into my head - *sigh* - I'll take the salad!!

So I've started counting calories. *sigh* It's slightly tedious, but I don't know that it can really be avoided. I am giving myself a slight out though - I refuse to count calories in fruits or vegetables. You're supposed to eat a bunch daily anyway, and I really hate measuring them! Here is my thought process though - if I eat a veggie in butter, I still count the butter. If the veggies come in frozen or canned form with anything added, I count the calories. If they are raw, simply frozen, or canned with no sugar or sodium added - they're free indulgences!

Then I put myself on a calorie budget. I give myself the goal of eating between 1600-2000 calories a day. This is a big difference, but it's been working so far. Since losing weight is usually done at a calorie level lower than what you need to sustain weight, and since the amount of calories I need to "sustain" my weight is super high - like 3,000 calories high - this range is pretty good for me. This way, I am shooting for 1600 calories/day, but don't beat myself up if I eat 1800. So far, so good.

Now granted, I've only been doing this since yesterday, but I feel like this is manageable and flexible. I count calories, work out, and sleep enough. I drink water nonstop, and I make sure I keep a healthy balance between work and play. For now, this is all I can ask!

So far - yesterday I ate 1700 calories. Today, I'm almost to dinnertime and I've eaten 950 calories. *fingers crossed!*

Thanks for reading! Until next time ;-)

Okay. I know I haven't blogged in way too long, so here goes my attempt to update you all. School is back in session, and I love all of my classes so far. I have Human Biology, Nutrition, Wellness, Physical Geography, Global Environment, and Urban Geography. Really, with the exception of Urban Geography, they are all connected to the path I seem to be on - a quest for inner peace, well-being, and an attempt to quench my thirst for knowledge about being healthy.

Let me explain.

My global environment class is helping me focus on the little (and big!) changes I need to make to be more environmentally conscious. I have wanted to "go green" for a long time but giving up some conveniences is hard (*hem *hem bottled water...). Physical Geography is helping with this too!

Human Biology is cool because right now we are learning about "functional foods," or foods that you eat for a specific reason - many supplements are included in this, like energy drinks and multivitamins.

Nutrition and Wellness are probably the most obvious ones related to my goals. I am taking Wellness unofficially because I took it my freshmen year and do not remember the supposed "fundamentals" of living healthy that we learned. So far, we've just been adjusting to school returning, but the focus of the class is on stress management, a topic I can never seem to conquer easily.

As for Nutrition, I will be teaching the class in October about Nutrition and Fitness, so I definitely have to keep on top of the material for this class. I think it would be really cool to try out all of the principles we learn and see how they really apply to my life.

Now that I've covered the main part of my days...

Fitness - I really hate counting regular physical movement as a workout, but if I did (major cleaning including scrubbing floors and bathrooms; walking the mile to campus; and breaking a sweat in the dishroom at work) I would be rocking it right now.

Now that my gym membership is completely free again, I have have HAVE to get back in the swing of things. I am planning on meeting with Tyler on Tuesday, so hopefully he doesn't kick my butt too bad!

Where is my motivation?

Food. *sigh* What an interesting tale...

I have been half-assing it, to be quite honest. Part of the time I'm totally righteous and downing salad, water, and fruit like they're going out of style. A few nights ago I ate a whole container of cookies. It was the first time I had them in the house in months, and not that that makes it any healthier, but it certainly serves as an adequate reminder of why I kept them out in the first place.

I went food shopping this week and have fallen into a funk of buying pre-packaged foods, including frozen meals, shredded cheese, and even junk food. Being so busy again for the semester has made me value my time even more - and in the kitchen that has lead to poor decisions.

Until I started writing this post, I didn't really have a plan. I don't know that I do now. But I do know that I have a plan of what I am NOT going to do. I'm not going to keep this nonchalant, devil-may-care attitude about the calories, nutrients (or lack there-of), and additives that I put in my body. I am not going to skip working out most days of the week. And I am not buying those damn cookies again.

Until next time, thanks for reading ;-)